One village the counsellors visited, which makes traditional sasa brooms from coconut leaves, has no cash flow after their coconut trees were ruined.

Another counsellor Kelera Batibasaga said children were still suffering from the trauma of the cyclone, which was the worst to hit Fiji since records began.

"When they try to get back to school, their mind is just blank," she said.

"And the children experiencing that - roof being blown off, things being dragged from one corner to another corner. Those are things the children are still talking about. They forget about school things."

Elisapeci Biau, left, is exhausted as Winston left 11 family members living in cramped conditions. Photo: RNZ / Sally Round

An expert in post-disaster psychosocial care, Holly Griffin, said Fiji's social structure and traditions were helping in the recovery.

She is helping the Fiji Red Cross with the training of counsellors.

Ms Griffin was earlier helping Christchurch people recover psychologically from the earthquakes and she said Fijians were less socially isolated, which was helping the situation.

People understood the importance of talking about what they had experienced, she said.

"They're a really social society. They have really strong communities generally and some really positive coping strategies because of that. They sit together and talk and support each other in ways that in Christchurch sometimes we needed to work on."

Mohammed Nadim shows photos of the house that was destroyed by Winston. Photo: RNZ/ Sally Round